Are You A Super Striker?

Let me ask you a question – do you think that individual brilliance can beat committed teamwork? (I’m going to use a football analogy here so let me just say the views I express are purely my own. If they are at odds with your take on the brilliant game, then I apologise!)

I remember a comic strip I once read once as a boy. It showed a football team where each player on the team was individually excellent.

They were all on the pitch before the game – practicing their particular skill – ‘I’m an expert dribbler’, ‘I’m an expert tackler’, ‘I’m an expert header’, ‘I’m an expert keeper’ said their speech bubbles……. you get the picture. They weren’t paying attention to each other and were only focusing on themselves and their particular forte.

Needless to say they were beaten hollow by a team of less able individuals who played for each other as a team.

Of course, for a game like football, solely focusing on individual skills makes no sense at all. Teams of good players that play for each other will always beat a group of prima donna’s who do not.

Just look at Leicester City’s performance last season as an example – it’s the teamwork, more than the individual brilliance that took them from the bottom to the top of the premiership in a single season.

Arguably Chelsea and Manchester United, with more expensive and talented individual players, performed below their potential last season – because they were just not playing as a team – something they clearly have both worked on this season.

It’s the same in business too.

Too many times in my career I have been frustrated by the inefficiency caused by ‘departmental priorities’ and the dreaded ‘silos’. Have you?

It is exactly the same nonsense as having a group of individually excellent footballers who just don’t see the need to play as a team.

And it ends up with the same mediocre result!

So let me ask you – what are you first? – a super striker or a committed team player?